Dreamhouse Look to a Simpler Era of Pop-Punk

Dreamhouse are a very self-aware band. You’d
certainly have to be if you’re a guitar-based, pop-punk act in 2016. After all,
even some of the genre’s biggest acts—Fall Out Boy, Paramore and Panic! at the
Disco—have largely favored candy-coated synths over power chords in recent
years.

So, it’s kind of refreshing (and nostalgic) to
hear a band pretend that it’s 2005. Originally formed in 2011, Dreamhouse
started off as a creative outlet for guitarist and songwriter Derek Moffat. “I
just wrote instrumentals, and I would give them to [Brianna Jackson, vocalist],”
Moffat recalls. “We just kinda wrote instrumentally for a long time. We never
started putting vocals to it ’til we started getting more members.” In 2015,
the band became a fully realized whole with the addition of guitarist Dan Beltran,
bassist Jordan August and drummer Noah Rush.

Dreamhouse smartly held off launching a media
campaign until it actually had content ready because they understand the
importance of immediacy in today’s social media-dominated world. Says Jackson, “We
didn’t wanna be one of those bands where they come out with a Facebook page and
are like, ‘Hey, we’re in this band!’ And then it takes ’em two years to write
an album. Like, a ‘Stay tuned, stay tuned, stay tuned!’ kinda thing.”

They elected, instead, to announce their
existence after everything was ready. Professional photos were taken and a
music video was shot, and then they
set up social media accounts. In March, Dreamhouse released its first single “Resurface,”
and then followed up two months later with “Clever” to keep its profile up.

Speaking of, I point out during our conversation
that “Clever” immediately reminded me of the aforementioned Paramore. The band
admits that the comparison is common. “I think it’s amazing Hayley [Williams]
created such a legacy that you can’t even be a female in a band without being
compared to her,” Jackson elaborates. “I think that’s incredible on her end.
So, to deny her as an influence would be kind of ignorant because she’s
amazing.” So while they readily acknowledge the pop aspects of their sound (and
living in a shadow of sorts), they also point out that they “always want to be
a guitar-based band” and cite also-rans Circa Survive and Dance Gavin Dance as
touchstones to their sound.

After “Clever,” the band spent the summer
touring and making a reputation for themselves. Fall came, and with it another
tour, including a show with Hawthorne Heights in Sturtevant. November saw the
release of Dreamhouse’s third single, “The Current.” The song and video notably
feature Veil of Maya vocalist Lukas Magyar, a connection the band had through
Moffat: In addition to being a guitarist and songwriter for Dreamhouse, Moffat
also owns and operates a recording studio in Milwaukee, 608 Studios, and Magyar
just happened to be in the first band that Moffat ever recorded there in 2009.
They became friends and stayed in contact with each other.

The band concedes it has great connections (“It’s
all about who you know,” Jackson states) and has been “lucky” so far in their
young career. That doesn’t mean, though, that any success they’ve had has gone
to their heads. The show with Hawthorne Heights, for example, was a “really humbling
experience” for them: You grow up listening to them and you remember your
middle school years when you’d just jam their CD in your car during your emo
phase,” Jackson says. “And then it comes full-circle when you’re sharing a
stage with them.”

2016 has certainly been good to Dreamhouse, and
they’re looking to finish as strong as they started. Their first EP, Bloom, is due out on Dec. 30, and that
night they’re playing a release show for it at The Metal Grill in Cudahy. They’ll
follow that with a New Year’s Eve show in Indianapolis.

In 2017, they’ll head back out on the road in
January, a tour that sees them hit markets they haven’t yet, including St.
Petersburg and Fort Worth. They’re also going to hit Orlando, which might be the
most exciting stop for them. “We have a day off there,” says Moffat, to which
Jackson adds, “We’re going to Harry Potter World!”

Dreamhouse
play The Metal Grill on Friday, Dec. 30 at 5 p.m. with Versus Me, Audacity,
Hey, Captain Knight and Never Doubt The Worm. The $10 cover includes a copy of
their EP.

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